


Become the Storm

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic 2018 [4]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Primeval
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dinosaurs, First Kiss, M/M, Minor Character Death, Prompt Fill, Storms, Stranded, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 13:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14165607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment Fic for Free For All prompt:Any, any, “He was a storm; not the kind you run from, but the kind you chase”- R.H. SinWhen Steve and Danny are forcibly stranded on an uninhabited island, they have more to contend with than just the elements.





	Become the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Whatif_AU: Lost/Stranded and H/C Bingo: Hostile Climate

_You take it to the limit_  
_When the winds come up_  
_Crazy men, crazy women_  
_Crying out for love_  
(Stevie Nicks)

 

The sky was a bruised purple, the wind whipping hard enough to bend the palm trees. The rain, and possible storm surge, wouldn’t be far behind.

“Exactly how fucked are we?” Danny asked, raising his voice to be heard over the wind and the crashing waves.

“Pretty fucked,” Steve replied, confirming Danny’s own interpretation of their current situation.

He watched Steve scan the area with a grim look on his face. There wasn’t much even a super SEAL could do under the circumstances. Their phones were on an express trip to the bottom of the ocean and between them they only had the clothes on their backs – no guns, no badges (not that they’d be worth anything), not even a stick of gum. It was lucky Sanchez and his crew hadn’t dumped them both overboard with the phones.

“I’m no expert,” Danny said, “but I think we need to get off the beach.”

Thunder cracked overhead and he flinched, but Steve was unmoved, eyeing the palm trees like he might want to make a raft out of them. He could probably pull that off somehow, even without any tools, but he was an idiot if he thought Danny would let him anywhere near the water during a storm.

It was time to be more proactive. Danny wrapped his hand around Steve's wrist and tugged, pulling him back toward the relative safety of the trees. Steve put up a token protest, but Danny knew full well that Steve could've easily shaken him off if he'd wanted to.

The rain started, an instant deluge, and Danny hunched his shoulders against it. "Well, this is perfect. Cold and wet, and hungry won't be far behind."

"What?" Steve shouted. 

"Shelter!" Danny shouted back.

Little known fact: there were actually over a hundred islands in the Hawaiian chain, and a whole hell of a lot of them were uninhabited. Some were little more than sandbars, and others irradiated ghost towns that had survived nuclear testing in the Forties and Fifties. Danny didn't know how big the island was that they'd been dumped on or if he was in danger of growing an extra limb, but those were minimal concerns at the moment.

The rain, the thunder, the wind – they created a cacophony that made talking fairly useless. Steve gave Danny a thumbs up and took the lead, pushing aside bushes and branches and brambles as they headed further inland. Danny wouldn't have minded following, particularly since the view of Steve’s ass was always good, but he could barely see from the rain blowing into his face.

His hair was going to be a disaster.

Danny didn't know what he'd been hoping to find. An old, abandoned hunting cabin, maybe. Or a handy lean-to that hadn't been blown away by the storm. What they stumbled across instead was an old bunker, half-buried in the ground, and Danny would be the first to admit it was pretty creepy. The cinderblocks had been overgrown with vines and moss, and the inside was mostly bare save for leaf litter, some dusty looking animal scat, and a rusty metal desk.

“Charming,” Danny said once they’d gotten under cover. “Nuclear testing or Doctor Moreau?”

Steve wasn’t even listening. He prowled around the room, kicking apart piles of leaves and dripping water all over the cement floor. His t-shirt was plastered to his chest, which was more than a little distracting for Danny; he averted his gaze.

"So what do you think? You make a radio out of coconuts and we get the rest of the team here?"

"This isn't a joke, Danny," Steve replied crossly. "We need to get back to Oahu, stop Sanchez."

"And how do you propose we do that, Steven?" Danny gestured widely. "Look around. We have nothing but a desk and a bunch of palm trees. We're stuck here. We can't call Chin. I can't make sure Gracie is safe from this stupid storm. And we're probably going to get pneumonia from these wet clothes."

"You done?"

"I reserve the right to future ranting should the situation warrant it."

Steve smirked. "Noted."

"Thank you. So what do we do, Survival Man?" Danny plucked at his wet shirt, which was feeling nice and clammy. 

"We wait out the storm," Steve said, resignation heavy in his voice.

The force of the wind made the rain sound like rocks being thrown at the heavily plexiglassed window that looked out on the jungle, and Danny couldn't help but wonder what the former occupants of the bunker had been looking at.

*o*o*o*

The bunker was more extensive than Danny had originally suspected. The room he'd dubbed the Viewing Room was merely the portion that was above ground. A metal door at the back of the room opened on a metal staircase, and of course Steve felt the need to explore. In the dark.

"Could be something useful down there," Steve said.

"And how are you gonna find it in the dark, huh?"

"Stay here. I'll be right back."

As if Danny had any interest in descending that potentially rickety staircase down into a pit of darkness that could be inhabited by any number of creatures slithery or furry. Even if claustrophobia hadn't been a consideration he still would've said no.

Instead he waited at the top of the stairs, listening to Steve narrate.

"This place is sealed up tight," he said, his voice echoing just a little. "It's pitch black down here."

"This is pointless," Danny called down to him.

"Bunkbeds. Three of them. No mattresses. Could be military issue." There was a sliding shuffle noise as Steve moved carefully around the room. "Some metal cabinets."

Danny heard doors being opened and closed. "I could go for a pizza, if you find one," he called down into the dark.

"How about some dead mice?" Steve called back.

"I'm good."

"There's nothing here. I'm trying the next room."

"Next? How many are there? Don't go getting lost down there, Steven, because I'm not coming to rescue you!"

"My hero," Steve said with a chuckle. "Found a bathroom."

Yeah, no. Danny could just imagine the shape _that_ might be in. Pass. He was a man; if he needed to do his business he'd do it outside.

"Steve? Hey! Steve!"

There was no response, and the little hairs on the back of Danny's neck stood up. He cocked his head, listening, but he didn't hear any sounds coming from the second level. 

"McGarrett! Fuck!" Danny took a couple hesitant steps down the stairs, hand clutching tightly to the metal railing. "This isn't funny!"

He went down a few more steps, suddenly feeling like he was five years old again and afraid the monster in the basement was going to grab his ankle as he descended the open staircase. He was going to kill Steve. For real this time.

And then there was a loud bang from the Viewing Room and Danny flinched, his heart pounding. He turned back to look, afraid the door might've shut on him, but it was still open. 

"What was that?" Steve asked, appearing out of nowhere right next to Danny.

Danny punched him in the shoulder. "You asshole! That's not funny!"

"Ow! What's with you?"

"I called you and you didn't answer!"

"I didn't hear you!"

Danny made a rude gesture with his hands and went back up the stairs. The outside door was still closed. There was no accounting for the bang, unless a tree or some other random debris had hit the bunker.

"Did you find anything useful down there? Well-preserved radio, maybe?"

Steve, pouting and rubbing his shoulder, shook his head. "There's nothing. One more room besides the living quarters and the bathroom, and it was completely empty as far as I could tell."

"Terrific. Wonderful. So I guess we just have to --" He broke off when a flash of movement outside the window caught his eye. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

He moved to the window, trying to see between the rivulets of rain running down it. "I saw something move."

"It's gale force winds out there, Danny. Everything is moving."

"I know what I saw." And what he saw was movement unrelated to the storm. "Maybe someone's out there?"

Steve joined him at the window, looking out. "I very seriously doubt there's anyone else on this rock besides us."

Movement again as something smashed right up against the window. Danny and Steve both stumbled back, Steve throwing an arm out as if they'd stopped short in the car and he didn't want Danny to hit his head.

"The fuck?" Danny shouted.

The thing at the window moved back, revealing one very large eye and something that looked an awful lot like a beak. A really massive beak. And then it was gone again, as if it had never been there at all.

"Are we in fucking Jurassic Park right now?" Danny was shaking and crossed his arms over his chest to try and stop it. "What the hell was that, huh?"

"I don't know. The better question is does it have friends."

"A flock of giant monster birds? Is that what you want me to be thinking about right now?" It seemed impossible that an animal that large could exist and no-one knew about it. Except... "Is that what these mystery bunker people were watching?"

"Maybe. We need to secure the door."

"With what? One old desk? The power of your mind?"

The locking mechanism on the door had long ago rusted out, and it was only the force of the wind that was keeping it closed. It was lucky the door didn't open in or else they'd be battling the elements inside the bunker as well as out. Well, the elements and apparently some kind of mutant ostrich.

Steve gave Danny a dirty look and went to take a closer look at the door. Danny had no doubt that, if it came down to it, Steve would barricade the bunker with his own body. Sometimes he seemed to forget that his partner was a trained law enforcement officer who could more than hold his own. The man had over-developed protective instincts.

“Do you think that thing was made in a lab?” Danny asked. He stayed a cautious distance from the window but kept a lookout in case the bird came back. “I wonder how many people know it’s here. You think Sanchez knew? Because I’d love to slap him with premeditated homicidal intent in addition to everything else we’re gonna get him on.”

“Hardly something that could be kept secret,” Steve said absently. “You know, if I had a crowbar, even a screwdriver, I could fix this.”

“And if you had a rifle you could hunt the giant bird. No sense wishing for what we don’t have.”

Speaking of the giant bird, it returned for another go at the window. Danny backed up, eyes wide, and made an abortive movement for the gun he didn’t have. The thing made an ungodly noise that sounded like a strangled scream and Danny had to fight the urge to scream right back at it.

“What do we do?” he shouted at Steve instead.

“He can’t get in,” Steve said. “So we hang tight and wait for him to leave.”

He was manhandling the desk, flipping it on its side and trying to work one of the legs loose. It would make a rudimentary weapon if he could get it loose, but Danny knew those old desks had been built to last, not like the cheap aluminum shit they made these days.

“And what if he doesn’t? Steven?”

Of course there was no answer to that. Once the storm passed they’d have to get past the thing to get back to the beach. But they had no way of calling to let anyone know where they were, so taking that risk was pointless. And on the off chance that Chin figured out they were stranded on the island and came with reinforcements, there’d be no way to warn them about the bird.

There was a very good possibility they were going to die in that stupid bunker, starved to death or eaten by a mutant bird.

The onslaught against the window continued – Danny was grateful for the thick plexiglass – and then there was a flash of lights that definitely wasn’t lightning. Danny edged closer to the window, trying to see past the stupid bird’s head.

“Uh, Steve?”

“I almost have it,” Steve grunted. His hands were wrapped around the desk leg, arm muscles bulging in a way Danny normally found distracting.

Something was coming straight at the bunker through the jungle. Danny could sense the movement even though he couldn’t immediately tell what it was until it got closer and the fucking bird moved its feathery ass out of the way.

“Steve.”

Headlights, cutting through the jungle foliage and the gloom and the pounding rain. And as it got closer Danny could hear a horn blaring.

“Steve! Get your ass over here!”

“What?”

“That!”

Danny pointed out the window at the modified black SUV that was approaching at speed, looking like something out of a Mad Max movie. The bird was looking at it too, and it was a cacophony of avian screams and car horn and crashing thunder.

“Down the stairs! Now!” Steve pushed Danny toward the door when it looked like the SUV was going ram straight into the side of the bunker.

Steve locked the door behind them and they pressed themselves against the wall a few steps down. The unrelenting darkness felt like a heavy weight on Danny, the stairwell impossibly narrow as if the walls were moving in on him.

“I can’t be here,” he gasped. “I can’t be here. I’ll take my chance with the bird.”

“Hey. Danny. Deep breaths, buddy, come on.” Steve wrapped his hand around Danny’s wrist, a lifeline in the dark. “Breathe with me.”

Danny listened to Steve, tried to match his breaths. And then someone was knocking on the door.

“You can come out now,” a voice called out. “Or, you know. Let me in?”

“Who are you?” Steve called back.

“Connor. Connor Temple. I’m here to help?”

“Doesn’t sound very sure of that,” Danny muttered. “What if he’s with Sanchez?”

“He wouldn’t come back here, not in this weather. Sanchez has us neatly contained. No, this guy has some other agenda.”

“Hello?”

“Step back,” Steve called. “We’re coming out. And we’re armed.”

“Armed? With what, exactly? Your rapier wit?”

Not that it mattered. Danny needed out of that stairwell, regardless of who Connor Temple was and what he might be doing at the bunker in the middle of a storm while a giant bird ran amok.

“Stay behind me,” Steve ordered.

“Yeah, yeah. Be careful, you big idiot.”

They burst out of the stairwell to find a young guy wearing some kind of black uniform standing by the window with his hands up, even though he was carrying a Heckler & Koch assault rifle and a Glock. Three electric lanterns had been set up, filling the bunker with a washed-out glow.

“You got anyone else down there?” he asked, and now Danny could hear the British accent. So the guy wasn’t local.

“Who are you?” Steve countered.

“Oh. Did you not hear me through the door? Connor Temple. And you are?”

“Commander Steve McGarrett, Five-0. My partner, Detective Danny Williams.”

Connor lowered his hands. “I dunno what Five-0 is. What are you doing out here?”

“We were dumped here by a very nasty criminal,” Danny said. “And we need to get back to Oahu. Do you have a radio or a boat or something more useful than that monster truck you drove here in?”

“Did you not notice the huge kelsher out there?”

“You mean the bird?” Steve asked.

“I mean the weather, actually. The bird’s a Titanis.”

Danny and Steve exchanged a look. The guy knew about the bird, knew what it was called. Had he unleashed it? Was it a laboratory experiment? The patch on Connor’s shoulder said ARC. Danny wasn’t familiar with that acronym.

“I was right, wasn’t I? This is the Island of Dr. Moreau.”

“The island of what?”

“Danny –”

“No. He’s right, Steve. We’re not going anywhere until this storm passes. Especially not while that two-ton bird is out there waiting for us. So the more pressing question I have is how do we get the thing back to Connor Temple’s lab, or destroy it.”

Connor shook his head. “I don’t have a lab. Titanis is from the Pliocene, and I’m going to get him back home as soon as I can. I can’t really explain more than that. You know. Security clearance and all.”

He looked sincere, with his babyface and body language, but Danny could read something else in his eyes, which seemed so much older than his face. He’d seen things, done things. Things someone his age shouldn’t have. Steve had that same look sometimes.

“Is this your bunker?” Steve asked. “Have you been watching this…Titanis?”

“Yeah, that’s not really our style. Honestly, I’m just here to wrangle the bird. I can call someone to pick you up as well, once the weather clears.” Connor shrugged, like it was no big deal. “I know what it’s like, being stranded. I’ll make sure you get back home.”

“So what’s the plan?” Steve asked. “How do we get rid of the bird?”

“I get him to chase me to the middle of the island,” Connor said. “He follows my truck through the…well, _through_ …and that’s that.”

Danny stared at him. “That’s that? That’s nothing!”

“I can’t tell you.”

“You might be interested to know that my friend Steve is a Navy SEAL and former intelligence officer. So you can either tell us everything you know, or I’ll ask Steve to _make_ you tell us everything you know.” Danny hated being on the other side of classified information. It was something Steve used from time to time when he was feeling less than forthcoming. Fuck classified. They were fighting for their lives.

Connor looked nervously at Steve and backed up until he was pressed flat against the wall. “Really, I can’t.”

“Did I mention I have a young daughter at home who doesn’t know where I am? And that I’d do anything to make sure I get back to her? Or that innocent people are going to suffer because the asshole that dumped us here is perpetrating a very big, very illegal act right now?”

Steve seemed amused by Danny’s attempts to coerce Connor into spilling his guts, but Danny wasn’t kidding. He needed to know everything Connor did about the bird and how to deal with it so he could safely leave the bunker when his damn rescue came.

“All right, fine.” Connor scrubbed his hands over his face. “Lester’s gonna kill me. And you probably won’t believe me anyway. Just remember you asked, yeah?”

He wasn’t wrong. Connor spun a tale of gateways – anomalies – that opened a doorway between the present and the past. Or the future. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures came through them and there was an organization called the Anomaly Research Center that either returned the creatures or destroyed them, depending on the situation. They were able to track the anomalies and had sent Connor to deal with theirs.

“I think we’d have heard about a mammoth rampaging around London,” Steve said when Connor finished his story.

“No, you wouldn’t have, because Jenny fixed it. People don’t want to believe something like that could be real, yeah? So they believe whatever we tell them instead.”

“So you’re like the Men in Black,” Danny said.

Connor grinned. “Exactly!”

“And they sent you without backup?” Steve asked.

“We’re short-handed at the moment.”

Danny wasn’t sure what he believed. But it was clear that Connor believed everything he’d just told them and that was pretty damn terrifying. Either he was certifiable, or the anomalies were real and the world was far more dangerous than Danny had anticipated. How was he supposed to keep Grace safe from randomly-occurring portals that let velociraptors and mammoths through?

“I’m sure I can get Titanis to follow me,” Connor said. “There’s just one small problem.”

“How small?”

“Are either of you any good at changing a flat?”

Thunder crashed and somewhere close by the bird screamed, and Danny really hated his life sometimes.

Predictably, Steve volunteered. 

“I’m coming too,” Danny said. He glared right back at Steve, who had that self-sacrificial expression on his face again. “No, don’t give me that look. You want to be all heroic, be my guest. But someone has to have your back while you’re crouching around changing a tire.”

“Temple can do it.”

“That’s all well and good, but I don’t know him. So you’re stuck with me. No offense, Connor.”

“None taken,” Connor replied. “You said you’ve got guns?”

“Yeah, no. We don’t. I’m gonna have to borrow one of yours. Preferably the big one.” Danny had seen the way Steve was eyeballing the assault rifle, and he could admit to feeling a bit covetous himself. He felt too vulnerable without his sidearm.

“No,” Steve said more forcefully. “You stay in the bunker. Temple and I can handle this.”

“And how do you propose to keep me in here, Steven? You can’t lock the door. You have no way to tie me up.” Danny poked him in the chest. “I’m not some damsel in distress here. We go together like always.”

“This is different, and you know it. You don’t have any training to deal with giant killer birds.”

“Oh, and I suppose that was part of your Super SEAL training. I can hold my own against Big Bird From Hell long enough for you to get that tire changed.”

“Guys?”

“It’s too dangerous!” Steve stubbornly insisted. “We can’t risk it.”

“Oh, but it’s fine to risk _you_? I suppose you could wrestle that thing into submission, is that it?”

“Guys?”

“Danny, please.”

The ‘please’ was new, and gave Danny pause. There was something going on behind that steely SEAL façade and he couldn’t quite make it out, but Steve almost sounded like he was pleading with Danny and that wasn’t right.

“What the hell is going on with you, Steven? I’m your backup, just like I have been since day one. This is no time to change things up.”

“I can’t protect you!”

“You don’t need to protect me!”

“I can’t lose you!” Steve snapped, and suddenly there was a whole lot of anguish on his face. “You’re all I have left!”

That took the wind out of Danny’s sails. He knew the losses Steve had faced. His whole family was gone. Mother, father, sister…there were some relatives on the Mainland but Steve wasn’t close to them. Danny knew what it felt like to be alone because that’s how he’d felt when he moved to Hawaii to be closer to Grace. Yes, he had a big family and they were all thankfully alive and well, but they were thousands of miles away.

Danny put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “You won’t lose me. We’ll get the tire changed and the good Mr. Temple will get rid of that bird, and then we can go home. But you know that’s only gonna happen if we work together. Okay?”

“Guys!” Connor shouted, shaking some sort of electronic device at them. “Clearly you’re working through something here, but we’re running out of time. The anomaly is going to close.”

He handed Danny the rifle and pulled an extra magazine out of one of his pockets. “The Titanis is fast and it has thick skin. This’ll deter it a bit, but if you absolutely have to kill it aim for the head.”

“Why aren’t we killing it to start with?” Danny asked. He felt a lot steadier with the rifle in his hands.

“He’s not here by choice. He just wandered through the anomaly. He deserves the chance to get home too, yeah?”

“If you say so.”

It was full dark outside and rain was still lashing the island. Danny was instantly soaked. Again. At the rate he was going he’d come down with pneumonia.

Connor’s SUV was parked right outside the door. There were metal plates protecting the hood, a big brush guard welded on the front, an old-fashioned metal speaker on the roof, and a snorkel coming out of the engine. The tires were big, heavy-duty looking things, but one was undeniably flat. Probably due to the gigantic tooth stuck in it. The spare was in a case attached to the rear hatch.

“Foreign plates,” Steve said. “How’d you get this here?”

“Let’s not focus on the details,” Connor replied evasively.

Danny kept his back to the bunker as much as possible as he kept an eye out for the bird. Steve and Connor were using one of the lanterns to see by, augmented by the strobe effect of the lightning. It was nerve-wracking, waiting for the thing to attack, and knowing he wouldn’t be able to see it until it was practically on top of them.

“How we doing, Danny?”

“Don’t worry about me. Just get the damn tire changed.”

Danny wiped the rain off his face. He thought he heard something, but between the wind and the thunder it was hard to tell.

And then the bird burst out of the jungle, screaming, and went right for the SUV. The thing was even bigger and more horrifying without the bunker between them, easily eight feet tall.

Danny brought the rifle up but he didn’t have a clear shot. The Titanis kept dodging and ducking, trying to get at Connor and Steve. Steve swung the tire iron like a bat.

“Get in the truck, you idiots!” Danny shouted.

Connor climbed into the SUV, but Steve rolled underneath it. Danny started firing but he couldn’t tell if he was doing any damage. He sure as hell wasn’t getting any headshots. The bird screamed again and then zipped around the side of the bunker.

“Steve!”

“I’m fine!” Steve rolled out from under the truck and rapped on the side with the tire iron. “Let’s go, Temple!”

They got back to changing the tire, moving nearly as fast as a NASCAR pit crew. Danny crept along the front of the bunker and peered around the corner, trying to get a bead on the bird. Lightning flashes showed nothing but trees and bushes. He turned back around and found himself face to beak with a prehistoric nightmare.

“Fuck!”

Danny only got off one shot before he was knocked aside and sent sprawling. He did his best to tuck and roll but he fetched up painfully against a palm tree, biting his tongue and hitting his shoulder hard enough that his whole arm went temporarily numb. He fumbled with the rifle, all too conscious of the giant talons that were getting far too close for comfort.

The next thing Danny knew, Steve was wrapped around the bird’s neck, feet off the ground, looking like he was trying to put the thing in a sleeper hold. The bird squawked indignantly and thrashed, trying to throw him off.

“You all right, mate?” Connor asked, his mouth next to Danny’s ear. He hooked his hands under Danny’s arms and dragged him back and out of the way. 

Danny shoved the rifle at him. “Take the shot!”

“Yeah, we’ve got bigger trouble.”

That turned out to be an understatement as a second Titanis appeared. Steve went flying and Danny saw red. He forced himself to his feet, pulled the pistol out of Connor’s holster with his good hand, and started shooting. Connor backed him up with the rifle.

“Clear a path to the truck!” Connor shouted. “I have to get them to the anomaly before more come through!”

Danny assumed that meant the tire had been changed. One of the birds went down, bullets finally hitting home, but the damn things were hardy because it struggled back to its feet. They both took off around the side of the bunker again, and it was the opportunity they needed. 

Connor jumped in the SUV and started it up. “I’ll send your coordinates as soon as I get back. Five-0, right?”

“Yes! Go!” Danny shouted.

The tires spun a little as Connor stepped on the gas. A horrible shrieking noise erupted from the speaker on the roof, sounding an awful lot like the sounds the birds had made. Danny didn’t know if it was a mating call or what, but both birds gave chase.

“Steve!” Danny grabbed the discarded lantern and ran to where he’d last seen his partner. “Hey! Steve!”

His heart was in his throat, fearing the worst, but Steve came shuffling out of the bushes. He had one arm cradled against his chest and his shirt was torn and bloody, but he was mobile.

The shrieking sound started to grow distant and then it cut off completely. The rain was still pouring down but the thunder was moving off as well. The worst of it was over. Hopefully.

“Danny. You okay?”

“Asks the man who’s bleeding.”

“We need to follow, make sure Temple made it to the anomaly.”

There was nothing Danny wanted to do less than trek through a jungle infested with giant birds, but he knew Steve was right. They couldn’t just duck back in the bunker and hope everything had gone to plan. But first he cleaned up Steve’s wound as best he could and fashioned a makeshift sling using his belt.

The going was slow with only increasingly infrequent lightning flashes and the dim light of the lantern to go by, but the rain finally let up. It was easy enough to follow Connor’s trail, though, since he’d driven right over everything smaller than a palm tree. Every step squelched, and Danny knew he’d be throwing those shoes away at the first opportunity.

“I can’t believe we have to worry about dinosaurs on top of homicidal criminals,” Danny griped. “That’s not fair. What do we do if one of these things springs up downtown? I am _not_ equipped to chase down a T-Rex, Steven.”

“When we get back we’ll get Chin on it,” Steve said. “We find out who runs this ARC and see if we can work with them.”

“You are not adding Dino Hunter to my job duties.”

“Noted.”

“I mean it.” 

“Okay.” 

Danny sighed. Why couldn’t he have a nice, quiet desk job? He could’ve been an accountant, like Uncle Frank. But no. He had to go into law enforcement and spend all his time dealing with the dregs of society and a crazy SEAL and now prehistoric creatures that had no business existing at all. The universe clearly hated him.

“Trail ends here,” Steve said.

He was right. There was unbroken jungle on every other side. Danny had no idea what an anomaly looked like but there was clearly nothing there that shouldn’t have been.

“You think he’s stranded on the other side?” Danny asked. He assumed Connor had traversed whatever prehistoric time the birds came from – he hadn’t really paid that much attention earlier – to get to the island in the first place.

Steve shook his head. “If he had a way in, he has a way out. I just hope he makes it.”

“So do I. He’s our only chance of getting off this god-forsaken rock.”

“Hey, it wasn’t all bad.”

Danny stared at Steve. “Not all bad? Do I need to check you for head trauma?”

But he knew Steve. Knew he thrived on the kind of adrenalin rush they’d just been subjected to. He was probably thrilled at the prospect of fighting a larger and more formidable foe, because he was insane.

Danny was insane too, to be attracted to someone who was undoubtedly shortening his own lifespan by a considerable amount. But Steve was one storm that Danny couldn’t hide from. No, he was a storm worth chasing and Danny was going to stop pretending he didn’t want to be twisted up with Steve. Time to stop fighting it. Time to embrace the storm.

“Danny –”

“Shut up.”

Mindful of the injured arm, Danny pulled Steve close and kissed him. In a day full of wrong it was the only thing that felt right. Steve slid his uninjured arm around Danny’s waist and held on, devouring Danny’s mouth with his own. 

“I think I maybe do have that head injury,” Steve gasped when Danny pulled back from the kiss.

“Maybe we both do,” Danny replied. “But I’m okay with it. You?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Steve moved in for another kiss, and Danny could feel warmth spreading all the way down to his toes. It was almost enough to make him forget he was soaked to the bone and standing in the middle of the jungle. Almost.

“Let’s get back to the bunker before something else tries to eat us.”

**Three Days Later**

_This is James Lester. Who is this and how did you get my private line?_

“Mr. Lester, this is Commander Steve McGarrett, Five-0 task force.”

_Ah, yes. The Americans. I was anticipating a call. I don’t suppose we can write off your experience as a shared hallucination of some kind? Perhaps an escaped zoo animal?_

“I want to know about the ARC and how I can protect my islands from any future incursions.”

Danny rolled his eyes. Incursions? He shared a look with Chin, who’d set up the call they were all listening in on.

_The chances of another anomaly opening up there are very slim._

“But not impossible. I need to protect my people, Mr. Lester.”

_Fine. I can send a team, have them instruct you in the basics. You’ll understand that we cannot officially sanction your group._

“Not a problem.”

_Yes, I suspected not. I’ll be in contact, Commander._

Lester ended the call and Steve grinned at Danny. “Dinosaur hunters!”

“I hate you,” Danny said with a sigh.

“No you don’t.” Steve leaned over the computer desk and kissed Danny. “This is gonna be great!”

It certainly wouldn’t be boring.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** Title from the song _Twisted_ by Stevie Nicks. The original idea for this was a straight-up stranded story where Steve and Danny ride out the elements in the bunker and finally deal with their mutual attraction. And then suddenly the Terror Birds were there and it turned into a crossover. I’ve previously written exactly one Primeval fic and it was super short, so hopefully I didn’t screw that part up too much.
> 
> Also, I killed off Mary (sorry, Mary!) to make this just a bit more of an AU. In case anyone was wondering why the heck I did that.
> 
> All my thanks to nagi_schwarz for the beta work and hand-holding. What would I do without you?


End file.
